Paris on Walnut Street
by Laurie M. Fisher

Brasserie Ten Ten has all the ingredients of a fine French restaurant: classic cuisine, white linens, polished silver and stemware, handcrafted walnut woodwork and Carrara marble mosaic floors. Located at 1011 Walnut St., Boulder’s newest French restaurant makes you feel you could be dining in Europe, New York or San Francisco. But although the atmosphere is big city, the prices are not. Appetizers and desserts cost under $8, lunch entrées are under $10 and dinner entreés range from $9 to $22.

Just across the street from its larger sister restaurant, The Mediterranean, Brasserie Ten Ten seats 88 diners and serves lunch and dinner seven days a week. The restaurant is co-owned by Med owner Peggy Romano, executive chef Tony Hessel and general manager Rob Kukura.

For more than six years, the three discussed opening a smaller restaurant so that Hessel could offer patrons dishes that might be more time-consuming to prepare. When the restaurant Dandelion closed across from the Med, the location and timing were right. The space fit the partners’ concept of a bustling European brasserie.

Hessel, who describes the menu as “French-inspired,” uses French cooking techniques that include saucing, braising and sautéing as well as preserving meats as confits. “These are simple dishes, not heavily steeped in sauces so that they become unrecognizable,” he says. “We use ingredients to accent the main dish, instead of draping it in sauces so you can’t taste it.” Weekly specials take advantage of seasonal local and regional produce.

To accommodate Boulder taste buds and health concerns, Hessel created lighter sauces and vegetarian options. His napoleon, for example, is a crisp black-bean cake with grilled tomato, eggplant and an artichoke compote, dressed with crème fraîche and crisp fennel. French classics include bouillabaisse, cassoulet and coq au vin.

Although Hessel feels strongly about all the dishes he has created and perfected, Kukura’s current favorite is marinated, grilled skirt steak served with a trio of sauces—goat-cheese crème, salsa verde and Brasserie cocktail sauce. Romano prefers the coquilles Saint Jacques with diver-caught sea scallops, a citrus beurre blanc and orange-and-avocado salad, served with jasmine rice.

Of course, matching the right wine to the meal is a French art form. Bar manager Christa Spicer searched for affordable selections that cost between $20 and $40 per bottle. Boutique beers from Belgium are also available.

The French are passionate for pâtisserie, and pastry chef Shamane Simons creates heavenly desserts that combine visual and culinary artistry. The apricot-maple tarte Tatin has fresh apricots caramelized in maple sugar, cradled in a puff-pastry shell and served with warm vanilla-bean ice cream. The white-chocolate blackberry explosion is a molten blackberry truffle inside a warm white-chocolate pistachio cake served over a pool of wild-berry coulis. Special birthday cakes are available with advance notice.

Delicious food is only part of the picture, says Greg Topel, Brasserie Ten Ten’s manager. He believes the restaurant’s success will ride on its moderate prices and the staff’s attention to service. The servers at Brasserie Ten Ten are unpretentious and eager to please, readily accommodating requests for another basket of freshly baked dill bread or an extra plate for sharing the duck pâté.

“The main thing we learned at the Med is that the restaurant business is really the people business,” Romano agrees. “People love to go out to eat in Boulder, but only if the whole experience is sensational.”

Brasserie Ten Ten is at 1011 Walnut St. The phone number is 303-998-1010.

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